A delegation from China is paying a working visit to the Tomsk Region. It is headed by Li Hui, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the Russian Federation. The guests visited Tomsk State University, where they met with the rector, Eduard Galazhinsky, and the vice-rectors of the university. The sides discussed areas of collaboration, after which the delegation members and the head of the embassy visited TSU’s Confucius Institute. There they talked with students and watched several performances in the Chinese language.
- Interest in the Chinese language is growing every year, so we plan to expand the list of programs and open new opportunities for students, - said Eduard Galazhinsky, the rector of TSU, during the meeting.
As one of the promising areas, the TSU rector named interaction with Chinese companies that have much experience bringing their products to the world market. TSU has a lot of innovative developments, about a thousand patents for new technologies and inventions. The university is interested in their commercialization and is ready to adopt the best practices accumulated in this area. At the same time, TSU itself took the first step toward meeting potential Chinese partners and issued a guide for them that collected the legal information necessary for international businesspeople planning to conduct business in Russia.
As the third possible line of interaction, Eduard Galazhinsky proposed the exchange of publishing products. The project involves the translation of the best books by Chinese authors into Russian, their publication in Russia and, conversely, the translation of Russian and world bestsellers and their publication in China.
Ambassador Li Hui, in turn, stressed that now the relationship between Russia and China is going through the best period in the history of the two states. The parties are interested in developing collaboration in different areas, one of which is the exchange of students and teachers. By 2020, the number of students enrolled in exchange programs in the People's Republic of China and Russia should reach 100,000.
It should be noted that thanks to the close collaboration of TSU with China, TSU students often have the priority right to study there. So, for example, in 2015, Shenyang Polytechnic University received permission from the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China to recruit Russian students for budgetary study in master’s programs. TSU was the first university in Russia to receive this invitation.
During the visit to Tomsk State University, the ambassador, Li Hui, noted the special contribution of the Confucius Institute to the spread of the Chinese language and culture. The Chinese side officially recognizes the Confucius Institute of TSU as one of the best in the world. At the end of 2016, it was the only one of all such centers in Russia in the twenty leaders of the global network of Confucius Institutes.
During the visit to TSU, this head of the Chinese Embassy in Russia was able to personally assess the level of knowledge of Russian-speaking students studying Chinese. During the performance, they sang songs, parodied a popular TV show, and read excerpts from famous literary works.
- They have a wonderful knowledge of the Chinese language. These students speak without an accent, - Li Hui noted. - They have better pronunciation than even some people in China, since the native population has an accent that is specific to their province, and the TSU students speak the Beijing dialect, which is considered the standard version of the Chinese language, which is official in the People's Republic of China. I would like to note that Tomsk State University as a whole makes a great impression, it is well known in China, so we will be happy to develop relations with the university, which has such a rich history and high level of education.
